Logansport Pharos-Tribune from Logansport, Indiana • Page 1

Focus On Municipal Election 13 Briggs Seventh In State Founded in 1844 Vol. 139, No. 262 Logansport, Indiana, November 6,1983 Cass Jobless Rate Hits Single Digit BY DAVE LONG Staff Writer Unemployment in Cass County is the lowest it has been in two years. The unemployment rate dropped to 9.6 percent in Cass County in September the first single digit unemployment rate jn the county since October of 1981. The 9.6 percent compares with ll.l percent in in August and 10.1 percent in July.

Cass County is one of four counties in Indiana that dropped from the double diget unemployment rate in September. The number of counties experiencing unemployment rates lower than 10 percent increased from 65 to 69 from August to September. The county has been wrapped in double digit unemployment since the figure jumped from 7.9 percent in October of 1981 to 13.3 percent in November of that same year. Unemployment gradually increased to a high of 18.8 percent in January of last year before falling. The city remains above the state unemployment rate of 8.9 percent.

The state unemployment rate has declined for the past eight months. The civilian unemployment rate for the nation is 8.8 percent. The September rate for Indiana represents 226,500 unemployed which is down by 6,100 from August. Cass County had 1,725 unemployed people in September which is down from the 2,000 reported in August, according to the Indiana Employment Security Division. Increased agricultural and industrial employment in the county has been a contributing factor to the decrease in un- TRIPOLI, Lebanon (UPI) Supporters of PLO chief Yasser Arafat retreated Saturday from a refugee camp under fierce attack by combined Syrian and Palestinian forces, Lebanese security sources said.

Damascus radio said Arafat's forces were isolated. Beirut radio said the past three days of fighting in the area of Tripoli left at least 140 dead, including 50 civilians. Fighting also began in and around Beirut in violation of the Sept. 26 cease-fire between Lebanese warring factions, whose leaders met in Geneva last week for reconciliation talks. Beirut radio said militiamen believed to be Druze Moslems directed artillery and rocket fire at Lebanese army positions at Ein Bissour and Qabr Shmoun in the Shouf mountains 10 miles southeast of Beirut, killing two soldiers.

In Beirut's southern suburbs, home for thousands of Shiite Moslems, soldiers and Moslem militiamen fought with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades until a cease-fire was agreed late Saturday, a security source said. Chrysler Pact Reached TWINSBURG, Ohio (UPI) Negotiators for Chrysler Corp. and workers at its Twinsburg stamping plant Saturday reached a tentative contract agreement aimed at ending a five-day-old strike that crippled the nation's No. 3 automaker. Warren Davis, director of Region II of the UAW, announced at 5 p.m.

that the agreement was reached a 34-hour marathon negotiating session. He said a ratification meeting was scheduled for 11 a.m. Sunday in nearby Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, and members of the union committee unanimously recommended approval of the agreement. Davis declined to release any details of the agreement pending ratification, but one union official said earlier Saturday that safety issues had prolonged the bargaining. Inside Today Grenada The head of a congressional fact-finding delegation to Grenada said Saturday that a continued U.S.

military presence may be necessary until sometime in 1984. PAGE 10 PIK Corn Corn is now available to farmers who participated in the 1983 Payment-in- kind (PIK) program, but one local official says that farmers may wait until 1984 to take their corn out of grain storage. PAGE 19 State Goes 0-3 No. 18 Notre Dame lost a close game to No. 19 Pitt, and Purdue and Indiana were bombed by Big Ten opponents Saturday PAGE 13 Delray Decides Leading Mr.

Basketball candidate Delray Brooks of Michigan City Rogers has announced he will attends Indiana University next year. PAGE 17 Index Ann Landers 27 25 Books 24 Business 18-19 Classified 28-31 Comics 26 Dr. Lamb .12 For Your Entertainment 24 Heloise 12 Nation 20 Opinion 4 People 5-7 Records 24 Sports 13-17 TV Guide 27 Weather 32 World 21 YoungPeople 8-9 18 17 1fi 15 14 13 11 10 9 8 Cass County's Unemployment Rate 9.6% Oct. Dec. Feb.

Apr. n. Aug. Nov. Jan.

Man May. Jul. Sep. employment, labor officials said. Cass County's unemployment rate was at 17.6 percent in January of this year and started a steady decline until August when it increased to 11.1 percent from 10.1 percent in July.

Local employment analysts were surprised by the increase, but predicted that it would only be temporary. The lowest unemployment has been in Cass County during the past three years was 7.5 percent in September of 1981. Only Carroll County in Loganland experienced increased unemployment in September. Carroll went from 6.7 percent in August to 6.8 percent in September representing an increase of 20 unemployed workers. Here is a capsule look at unemployment in Loganland: County Unemployment increased from 6.7 percent in August to 6.8 percent in September.

Carroll had 620 unemployed workers in September in a work force of 9,190 people. County The unemployment rate dropped from 11.1 percent in August to 9.6 percent in September. Cass County has 1,725 unemployed workers in a work force of 18,075 workers. County Unemployment declined from 7.3 percent in August to 6.8 percent in September. There are 610 people in Fulton County without jobs in a work force of 9,030.

Miami County Unemployment dropped from 8.8 percent in August to 8.1 percent in September. Miami County has 1,150 people still looking for employment in a work force of 14,150 people. County The unemployment rate dropped from 6.9 percent in August to 6.6 percent in September. There are 430 people in Pulaski County without jobs in a work force of 6,440 people. White County White County continues with the highest unemployment rate in Loganland with 10.4 percent down from 10.7 percent in August.

There are 1,175 unemployed people in White County in a work force of 11,325. Arafat Supporters Reported Isolated Steve Mobile home haulers have a tight squeeze turning the corner from Sixth Street to Broadway Logansport Gateway To 1-65 ByDAVEKITCHELL Staff Writer If it seems there are lots of trailers marked "oversize" and "wide load" coming through Logansport lately, it's because there A spokesman for the state's prefabricated housing industry says a series of lane and bridge repairs on U.S. 31 south of Kokomo during the past year has forced several builders in Elkhart and South Bend to reroute most of their oversize loads through Logansport. The new route has forced as many as 10 to 15 the jumbo trailers to make tight squeezes througn some of the city's busiest intersections every day. Traffic at Sixth Street and Michigan Avenue, Sixth and Broadway and Market and Cicott Streets often backs up as oversize loads make wide, sweeping turns.

The loads are pulled south on Ind. 25 toward Lafayette, then south on 1-65 to Indianapolis. Dan Gilligan, vice president of the Indiana Manufactured Housing Association in Indianapolis, says concrete lane dividers are being used temporarily to narrow U.S. 31 to 12 feet, six inches. He said the narrow lanes are the main reason for the routing change.

"Most of the homes and trailers that come from the northern part of the state need 14 feet of clearance to make it through," says Gilligan. "With the new cement lane dividers that replace the plastic cones on both sides of the road, it makes it impossible to come down 31 because the dividers are higher than the cones and are more dangerous for someone driving a trailer that Gilligan says the housing and mobile home industries in the Elkhart-South Bend area use U.S. 31 more than any other highway in the state. "Now," he says, "those trailers that normally would be going through Kokomo are going through Logansport on Ind. 25 and going on to Lafayette where they can get on Interstate 65." Connie Whitsett, a transportation and shipping official with Schult Homes in Middlebury, says that several companies like hers may ship at least three oversize trailers daily through Logansport.

While that may seem like a great deal of prefabricated homes, it reflects a growing prefabricated and mobile home industry. Gilligan says industry estimates indicate 30,000 prefabricated and mobile homes will be built by Indiana manufacturers this year, most of them in the Elkhart-South Bend area. He says that 80 percent of those 24,000 mobile and prefabricated homes will be sold to dealers in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Wisconsin and Minnesota. The oversize loads on Ind. 25, froip Rochester through Logansport, make passing difficult.

But Gilligan says his industry can't help the inconvenience. "We don't particularly like to go througn the smaller towns because it causes traffic problems, but we don't have any alternative until U.S. 31 is repaired." Sources say 28 of the state's 46 prefabricated and mobile home manufacturers are located in the city of Elkhart or Elkhart County. The seven largest manufacturers in the South Bend-Elkhart area are Skyline Elkhart; Schult Homes and Coachman Homes, Middlebury; Commodore Homes, Syracuse; Fairmont Homes, Nappanee; Redman Homes, Topeka; and Holiday Rambler. 'V 'v.